Recruitment and retention strategies in longitudinal clinical studies with low-income populations
Open accessAbstract
Background Conducting longitudinal research studies with low-income and/or minority participants present a unique set of challenges and opportunities.Purpose To outline the specific strategies employed to successfully recruit and retain participants in a longitudinal study of nutritional anticipatory guidance during early childhood, conducted with a low-income, ethnically diverse, urban population of mothers.Methods We describe recruitment and retention efforts made by the research team for the 'MOMS' Study (Making Our Mealtimes Special). The 'multilayered' approach for recruitment and retention included commitment of research leadership, piloting procedures, frequent team reporting, emphasis on participant convenience, incentives, frequent contact with participants, expanded budget, clinical staff buy-in, a dedicated phone line, and the use of research project branding and logos.Results Barriers to enrollment were not encountered in this project, despite recruiting from a low-income population with a large proportion of African-American families. Process evaluation with clinic staff demonstrated the perception of the MOMS staff was very positive. Participant retention rate was 75% and 64% at 6 months and 12 months post-recruitment, respectively. We attribute retention success largely to a coordinated effort between the research team and the infrastructure support at the clinical sites, as well as project branding and a dedicated phone line.Conclusions Successful participant recruitment and retention approaches need to be specific and consistent with clinical staff buy in throughout the project.
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A predominance of mothers were included due to self-selection bias, consistent with previous education studies, and the study faced difficulties recruiting lower-income families.
“Consistent with previous education studies, a predominance of mothers were included due to self-selection bias [51, 66], and we faced difficulties recruiting lower-income families [56].”
From SET-PAiREd: Designing for Parental Involvement in Learning with an AI-Assisted Educational Robot (2025) · cites this paper as [56]
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SET-PAiREd: Designing for Parental Involvement in Learning with an AI-Assisted Educational Robot
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- Authors
- Nicholson, L. M., Schwirian, P. M., Klein, E. G., Skybo, T., Murray-Johnson, L., Eneli, I., Boettner, B., French, G. M., & Groner, J. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Mount Carmel College of Nursing (US)
- Nationwide Children's Hospital (US)
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nicholson, Lisa M.
- Venue
- Contemporary Clinical Trials
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-05
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 353-362
- ISSN
- 1551-7144 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3070062
- OpenAlex
- W1986799477
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 9.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Contemporary Clinical Trials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD050944, R21-HD50944)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Keywords
- participant recruitment, participant retention, low-income populations, minority groups, early childhood, mothers, African American families, research incentives, project branding, process evaluation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Attitude of Health Personnel, Child, Child, Preschool, Communication, Diet, Ethnicity, Female, Health Education, Health Promotion, Humans, Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Marketing of Health Services, Mothers, Obesity, Ohio, Patient Dropouts, Poverty, Research Personnel, Urban Population, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Patient Selection, Researcher-Subject Relations, Young Adult
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